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Is to tell me: What the hell is this? Hint: I recieved it as a white elephant gift for Christmas. Consider it a librarian challenge. First person to get the answer recieves the respect of reference librarians everywhere. Yes, I do know what it is. I just want to see how hard it is to find out with only a picture. <edit121603>Since Catherine asked: the object is a very hard plastic, and approximately 2 feet long. The two long side protrusions are maybe 4 1/2 inches, with the two small protrusions being slightly less than 1 inch.</edit121603> <edit121703>No to both Justin and Patrick…it is neither a thing for hanging or a handrail. This is fun! Anyone else wanna give it a try?</edit121703> |
Author: griffey
Jason Griffey is the Executive Director of the Open Science Hardware Foundation. Prior to joining OSHF, he was the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he worked to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise was useful and needed. Prior to joining NISO in 2019, Jason ran his own technology consulting company for libraries, has been both an Affiliate at metaLAB and a Fellow and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and was an academic librarian in roles ranging from reference and instruction to Head of Library IT and a tenured professor at the University of TN at Chattanooga.
Jason has written extensively on technology and libraries, including multiple books and a series of full-periodical issues on technology topics, most recently a chapter in Library 2035 - Imagining the Next Generation of Libraries by Rowman & Littlefield. His latest full-length work Standards - Essential Knowledge, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, was published by MIT Press in March 2025.
He has spoken internationally on topics such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, the future of technology and libraries, decentralization and the Blockchain, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. A full list of his publications and presentations can be found on his CV.
He is one of eight winners of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries for the Measure the Future project (http://measurethefuture.net), an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces. He is also the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (http://librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system.
But as all things, frought with difficulty.
From Slashdot, a story of one man’s attempt at getting Open Source CD’s into his public libraries in Edinburgh, Scotland. In the story is a great PDF of his story and problems that he had. A good read for librarians everywhere.
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Just a quick note…
…that yes, I’m still alive. 🙂 Busy, busy, busy with the preparations for celebration of the upcoming holidays.
Things I’m looking forward to:
Seeing Return of the King on Wednesday
Opening all my kick-ass presents from Betsy
Hanging out with my family
Things I’m NOT looking forward to:
Driving…lots of driving
Not seeing everyone for weeks…those of you that will be around after xmas, leave a comment, ok? Just so I know who I can go out with while Betsy is in San Diego at the MLA
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Check out Justin…
…on boingboing! (cool link, btw).
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SCO = classic humor
So, in response to IBM’s request for the source code that it is supposedly infringing upon (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can browse the Google news for it), SCO provided IBM with a PRINTOUT OF THE CODE totaling a million sheets of paper. A million. sheets. of. paper. What a great lawyer tactic! (from boingboing)
To put this in some context, a million sheets of paper is:
Over 4000 inches tall
Over 333 feet (twice the height of the Statue of Liberty) if stacked
Just a bit over 6 tons
374000 cubic inches
216.4 cubic feet
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I’M DONE!
I feel sorry for all of you still stuck in the throws of finals….ah, who am I kidding? No I don’t…I’m too happy BEING DONE!
WOOOO-HOOOOOOO!
🙂
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I, for one…
…welcome our new library robot overlords.
A Japanese team of researchers has developed a robot that could help browse for books in a library by receiving instructions via the Internet…Using a laser to navigate between shelves and other barriers, it can select a book, open it and flip through pages with its own hand, while taking and sending pictures of contents.
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Ah, the fun of Search Engines…
A short list of search queries that led to my blog, from my referral logs:
“burninating”
“i am completely fucked up”
“tea hand picked by monkeys”
and of course, the very best (someone out there did this on purpose, you funny people, you…)
“jason griffey free naked”
Finally down to ONE assignment: INLS201 final paper. Getting that done after the two weeks I’ve had will be a major undertaking of effort, since now all I want to do is goof off.
Good luck on finals and such to all my SILS guys, esp: Jean and Trish (looking forward to the day when you’re both reasonably healthy again), Justin (Happy Birthday!), and Tracy (the coolest word I know).
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New Favorite Quote
At least about librarians…from this month’s American Libraries:
“Libraries are brothels for the mind. Which means that librarians are the madams, greeting punters, understanding their strange tastes and needs, and pimping their books. That’s rubbish, of course, but it does wonders for the image of librarians.” – Guy Browning, The Guardian, Oct. 18